State of the News...

It’s 9:17 p.m. EST. President Bush has been presenting his 2006 State of The Union speech for about 4-7 minutes or so. I’m watching the speech and surfing the web at the same time and can’t help but notices that both Boston.com and the WSJ already have published articles on the speech. Yes, they’re media outlets that get text of the speech ahead of time, but is it really journalism to have the headline “Bush to say ‘America is addicted to oil’ in Speech,” on Boston.com and “Bush made lessening reliance on Mideast oil….” As the top story on WSJ, even before he’s STARTED the speech – let alone finished.

It’s 9:21 now. CNN.com says, “Bush: We will Fight for Freedom,” and goes on to say “President Bush used his State of the Union speech to spread his vision of a world free of dictatorships and terrorists. Referring to terrorist attacks in London and Russia (something he HASN’T actually done yet- my Tivo has a delay for live TV, but it’s not THAT bad) he said: Terroirst hope these horrors will break our will, allowing the violent to inherit the Earth.”

9:23- Foxnews.com “We Seek the End of Tyranny,” and goes on to say “President says nation must not falter in War on Terror, should end dependence on Mideast oil through alternative energy.” Hasn’t said that yet.

9:26 – www.nytimes.com – “Bush Messages: Defeat Terror and ‘Keep America Competitive’” Well, the story has time stamped 9:17, but he hasn’t yet said what they say, that “President Bush _said_ tonight that Americans must break a national “addiction” to oil to preserve their country’s prosperity and security. Of course the caption under the what actually looks like real time photo does offer a future tense outlook: “The speech is _not expected_ to offer any bold initiatives for 2006 or present any significant news on Iraq.” Guess the caption writer isn’t “real time,” same liberal bias though!

9:29 – www.washtimes.com – Holy cow! The Washington Times – what a bunch of hacks! The lead story for this conservative paper is…”Coretta Scott King dies at 78.” That was SO this morning’s news, it’s like they stopped to think before they wrote something. Amateurs!

9:32 – www.drudgereport.com – “America is Addicted to oil” – well, we expect Drudge to have the scoop ;-)

9:34 – phew, we’ve gotten to the part where only half the crowd stands and claps for ideas. That would be the Democrats sitting down to the suggestion of re-upping on the Patriot Act. They wonder why they’re perceived as weak. Look at that, Hillary is smiling.

9:36 – news.bbc.co.uk – “Bush Warns US of ‘oil addiction.’” Not surprising, hasn’t said it here yet, but those Brits are five hours ahead, so the speech is over there, right? ;-)

9:38 – abcnews.go.com – wow, something he actually already has said, “President Bush asked Americans to reject the false comfort of isolationism.”

9:40 – www.cbsnews.com – “We Will Never Surrender” – nope, hasn’t said it yet.

9:40 – Bush asks to make his tax cuts permanent, camera quickly pans away from frozen-sitting Democrats.

9:42 – “Pass the line item veto,” Those pesky Supreme Court Judges won’t clap for ANYTHING!

9”42 – bets joke, “two of my dad’s favorite people – Me and President Clinton.” Hillary barely cracks a smile!

9:43 – “Congress did not act last year on my pleas to save social security” – the Democrats go wild, Hillary looks giddy – shameful.

9:46 – www.bloomberg.com – “Bush Seeks Support on Terrorism, Offers Modest Domestic Plans.” Google stamps it as 37 minutes ago, technically before he began speaking (wow, they’re good!)

9:48 EST – “America is Addicted to oil” PHEW! Big line FINALLY happens.

9:49 – Bush proposes all sorts of new spending on alternative energy. Hmmm…where are those nutty environmentalists on this one?

9:53 – Okay, yeah I admit it, this is kind of a boring State of the Union so far.

9:55 – Oops, I realized my time may be off – backed up with Tivo a while back to see Hillary get giddy about bankrupting Social Security.

9:56 – Weird. NBC will only show the left hand side of the gallery. (W’s left).

9:57 – Finally, those judges clap….for Sandra Day O’Connor.

10:02 – NBC pans the camera to John Kerry, millions of Americans heave a sigh of relief to see him…in the audience!

10:03 – It’s over. 51 minutes from start to finish they tell me. Wow, not an exciting speech. Oh well, time for the talking heads to take over the talking (ugh, bores).

Game, Set,....

Finally, the Senate confirmed Samuel Alito to the Supreme court. Look at this SHAMEFUL picture that CNN put on Cnn.com to accompany the announcement of a Justice of the Supreme court being sworn in. It looks like a picture of someone who has been arrested coming out of court. This is a man who has hit the pinnacle of his profession, one that should be revered in this country, and one of our main “journalistic” outlets takes a cheap shot at him with a “frog walk” picture? Unbelievable.

He wasn’t treated much better by the democratic portion of the United States Senate. In a shamefully partisan split vote, Judge Alito was confirmed with a vote of 58 to 42- only 4 democrats voting for confirmation (and one “Republican.”) To put this in context, Clarence Thomas, the man most railroaded and reviled by the left (unless you consider Judge Bork) got 11 democratic votes! Compare that with votes for far left Justices such as Justice Ginsberg, and consider which party is actually working under the auspices of the Untied States Constitution.

So long Maestro...

Fantastic tribute to Alan Greenspan by Milton Friedman in today's WSJ entitled, "He has Set a Standard." It's always so interesting to see 12-cylinder brains just go at it and see what scraps you can catch as they fall off the table. Messrs Friedman and Greenspan though friends have apparently long disagreed about strict rules versus administrator discretion in central banking policy. Mr. Friendman's tribute conceeds, halfway. He points out in full detail Greenspan's success versus the first 70 ineffectual years of the Federal Reserve. He conceeds that Greenspan did an excellent job keeping the money supply consistent and noninflationary while at the same time holding out that not every adminstrator will have Mr. Greenspan's talents. (Incidentally, he points out what many of us know --that it was Ronald Reagan who set the "hands off the Fed" example, first with Paul Volker and then with Alan Greenspan, that all Presidents (thankfully) now follow).

Incidentally, to my "Massachuestts" friends who haven't figured out that the economy is booming and has been for a long time -- Mr. Greenspan used his last day in office to raise the Fed Funds rate (a 1/4 point) for the FOURTEENTH time in a row. That's done because the head economist of the land is fearful of inflation, a sign that the economy is growing too fast (again, fourteen times in a row).

Also, for those who consider the Federal Reserve to be a "black box," two great reads are Bob Woodward's Maestro, as well as Secrets of the Temple.